


It's a Supernatural Life

by OhWilloTheWisp



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Mpreg, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, pregnant!cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-11 22:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5643619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhWilloTheWisp/pseuds/OhWilloTheWisp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam insists they celebrate Christmas in the bunker Dean goes along with it mostly to make Sam happy.  But it takes an unexpected turn when an a guest shows up at their door.  And Dean has a very important question to ask Cas, if he can ever work up the courage to do it.  All in all the holiday doesn't turn out how any of them expected, but it might just be what all of them needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's a Supernatural Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OutOfLuck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OutOfLuck/gifts).



“I don’t understand…”

Dean blamed Sam.  He blamed Sam Cas’ perplexed look.

“It doesn’t make sense.”  The angel continued.

“I know the depiction of angels isn’t exactly accurate, but the sentiment is what people really respond to.  If George Bailey had killed himself then the world would have been worse off.  It means that everyone matters, that people do more good than they realize.”  Sam valiantly tried to explain It’s a Wonderful Life to Cas.

It was Sam’s fault.  He was the one who suggested, _insisted_ , they have a “real” Christmas this year.  They were at the bunker, and for the first time in a long time they had a stable home of sorts.  Sam had said it would be good for them, all of them, to have a traditional Christmas.  And somewhere between the puppy dog eyes and Cas’ talking about human traditions and the true meaning of Christmas being about love and family, Dean had relented.  He never could say no to his brother or his angel.  And here they were, trying to explain the finer points of It’s A Wonderful Life to an angel.

“I understand the movie.”  Cas was getting annoyed now, and using his, “I’ve been alive since the dawn of time” voice.  “What I don’t understand is why you and Dean would want to watch this movie.”

“It wasn’t my idea” Dean put in at the same time Sam said, “It’s a classic!”

“It goes against everything the Winchesters stand for.  It shows a man who wished to go against the divine plan and due to angelic intervention came to see that his best course of action was to follow the path laid out for him.  He turned away from his act of defiance when he saw that doing so would cause pain and chaos.  That is tantamount to everything you both have been fighting against since I met you.  I don’t understand why you would find this movie so inspirational.”

“It’s just a movie,” Sam grumbled, clearly this whole Christmas thing wasn’t going as well as he had planned. 

“I tried to tell you,” Dean put in, “there is no way two hunters and an angel of the Lord could ever have anything resembling a traditional Christmas.  It’s going to take a miracle to make this Christmas turn out.”

“You should be nicer to your brother.”  The voice came from Sam, but was distinctly _not_ Sam, “he’s trying to find some normalcy despite the pain he has endured.  You should be more supportive.”

It was bad enough that he had Sam moping, but now he had Gadreel lecturing him too.  He was glad that Gadreel had decided to reveal himself to Sam.  And he was happy that he and Sam had worked it out so that Gadreel could stay until Sam was fully healed, even if it did make it feel like Sam was an angelic time share.  But Dean didn’t need him emerging just to reprimand him in his “holier than thou” voice.  Suddenly the bunker felt too crowded.

“I need a drink.”  That was the one good thing about Christmas, there was eggnog, spiked eggnog, which was exactly what Dean needed right now.  He drank the first glass down and felt it working to calm his nerves a little.  His hand went to his pocket as if to reassure himself the ring was still there.  He didn’t know why he was so nervous.  He had Cas had been together for a while, he loved Cas and he knew the angel felt the same.  But ever since he had decided to propose he had been a nervous wreck.  He having a dream that he had asked, and Cas would tell him that he would never lower himself to marry a mortal like Dean.  He downed more eggnog.  Today was the day.   It was cheesy and cliché, and Sam would mock him relentlessly for it, but Christmas just felt like the right time to propose to an angel.  That was why he had turned into such a Grinch.  He wasn’t trying to spoil Sam’s fun, but he had been trying to get his courage up to pop the question all day.

He took a deep breath and put on his best smile and prepared to go back.  Before he could, he heard a soft knock at the door.  He tensed up, his hunter instincts on high alert.  No one knew about the men of letters bunker, at least no one that would be coming to see them on Christmas Day.  His hand wen to his gun and he made his way to the door to see what new disaster was descending on them on Christmas.

He opened the door to a figure that was all too familiar.

“Mom?”

“Dean.”  Her smile was beautiful as she crossed the threshold and hugged him.

“How is this even possible?”

“You’ve both been through so much, God wanted to reward you, show you that he does understand all that you two have done in his absence.”

“No, this…this can’t be happening.  What are you?  A ghost?  A skinwalker?”

“It’s me Dean.  Good things do happen, Dean, I’m so sorry that you’ve been through so much you don’t believe that anymore.”

Cas’ hand was on Dean’s shoulder, a reassuring weight, at that moment the only thing anchoring him.  Sam was close behind as he pulled his mom into a hug, his frame dwarfing hers.

 “So what, you got a day pass out of heaven?  You get to spend Christmas with us, then you’re going back to the attic.”

Her smile was one that Dean had longed to see for so long.  “I guess you could say that.  It’s not as bleak as you make it sound.  I don’t mind going back.  A hunter’s life is never easy, in heaven I can be at happy with John.  But this is a gift, I get to see my boys again, see how you turned out.”

“And who is this?” she asked looking at Cas.

“I am Castiel.  I am an angel of the lord.  It is very good to meet you Mary Winchester.  Dean and Sam speak very fondly of you.”

“It’s nice to meet you Castiel, I always said angels were watching over my boys, I’m glad to see I was right.”  Cas looked please at this assessment and Mary’s obvious approval of his involvement in the Winchesters lives.

Dean wanted so badly to believe it was her.  But good things didn’t happen, not like this, not to them.  He studied her carefully.  “We need to test you, make sure you are who you say you are.”

“Dean!” Sam’s voice was sharp with surprise and reprimand.  Dean felt the same way, they both wanted to believe this was real.  If it wasn’t it would feel like losing their mom all over again.  But they’d been down this path before and it was dangerous to take her word for it.

“It’s okay Sam, Dean’s right.  You need to be sure, I wouldn’t expect anything less.”  Her voice was calm and the smile hadn’t left her lips.  Dean remembered seeing his mom when she was young.  She had been such a fierce hunter back then.  It was hard to juxtapose the person he knew she had been with the woman he remembered from his childhood.  But she took his doubt in stride, as if the possibility that she was a monster was a given.

He knew they needed to test her to be sure, but he stood unable to make himself move.  It wasn’t Mary, it couldn’t be.  And soon that would be clear, but a part of him resisted, he wanted to believe it was really her, even if he believed a lie.

 “It’s okay Dean,” Cas’ words cut through his thoughts, “it is Mary Winchester.  Her soul shines brightly.  She was very important to heaven; I could never mistake her soul.”

Dean let out a shuddering sigh, unsure what to think.  His mom was alive.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was easier for Sam, in a way.  He didn’t remember Mary, not really.  He only knew the stories Dean had told him and the pictures that had survived the fire.  To him their mom was here, a part of their lives again.  For Dean it was like seeing a ghost.  He remembered her, he remembered her dying, he had grieved her death, and now here she was.  He knew she was real, he trusted Cas.  But it still didn’t feel quite right.  It still felt like he was watching her ghost as Sam talked to her, showing her all the books in the Men of Letters library and filling her in on all the things that had happened to them.  His was clearly excited, but his stories were stilted and stuttering.  He wanted her to know everything, but he also wanted to protect her from the harsh reality of what had happened to them.  Dean understood, he felt the same way.  For his part, Gadreel had remained quiet.  As of late it wasn’t like Gadreel to stay away for so long.  Dean supposed it would be rather difficult to explain that particular situation to Mary.  He wasn’t sure what to tell her about him and Cas.  Telling his mom he was in love with an angel of the lord was uncharted territory for him.

“So people were disappearing from his small town and there was no explanation, only then….” Sam trailed off, remembering the next part of the story was how the bodies of the missing people started appearing in the woods.  “Uh, well, anyway, Dean was really brave.  He saved me and acted like it was nothing.”  Sam was like an overly excited puppy.  But it was better than Dean.  Dean was following them around, standing at a distance, as if he were the ghost, close enough to watch, but not a part of it.  Cas was a solid presence beside him, the only thing that felt real to him at that moment.  Mary looked from Sam to Dean, a look of concern crossing her face as she watched him.  She looked like she wanted to say something but changed her mind.  Instead she indicated something on the wall behind Dean.

“That’s an interesting decoration.  I take it that wasn’t original to the men of letters hideout?”

Dean looked behind himself only to see the beer bottle wreath that was hanging on the wall.  Sam had gotten it as a part of his bid for them to have a real Christmas celebration.  They had gotten one like it when John was still alive, and it always said Christmas to Dean.

“Yeah, it’s sort of a Christmas tradition for us.”  Dean said, “Sam wanted to do the whole Christmas thing this year.”

Mary sighed, but her voice was affectionate, “I suppose that’s what you get from a family of all men.  Still, I’m glad that John gave you some Christmas traditions, even if they aren’t entirely traditional.”

Dean chose not to tell her that John wasn’t there for most of their Christmas’, and when he was, celebrating the holiday wasn’t top priority for them.  He didn’t know how much she knew about what had happened after her death.  But it hadn’t been easy and John had done his best under the circumstances.  When monsters were killing innocence people it was difficult to take time off to decorate a tree.  There was no reason to worry his mom with all the grizzly details of their upbringing.

“Do you remember when the Christmas we made gingerbread men and you bit the head off everyone?  You swore you didn’t do it, you said a gremlin must have done it, because you never would have.  Let’s see how well stocked your kitchen is, shall we?  Nothing says Christmas like gingerbread men.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It turned out for all of Sam’s planning he didn’t think to get the stuff to make gingerbread men.  Cas went out to get the supplies needed and came back looking like he had bought out the entire store.  It wasn’t long after that when they had gingerbread men baking in the oven.

Smoke filled the bunker’s kitchen, and Dean opened the oven door to a plume of smoke billowing out.  He pulled the cookie sheet out dropping it unceremoniously down on the stove top burning his hand in the processes.  He looked over the abysmal mess of charred gingerbread men, curls of smoke still coming from their blackened forms.

Cas looked over the bleak scene, Dean looked as dejected as the gingerbread men before him.  Cas handed an ice pack to help with the burn.  His voice was sad as looked over the blackened cookies, “There was a time I could have restored them to what they were meant to be.  Miracles come in many forms and angels are imbued with the power to fix nearly anything”.

Dean pulled the former angel into him, and Cas leaned against him.  “The gingerbread men don’t matter, we can make more.  I know this whole situation is weird, but I’m glad you got to meet mom.  I’ve been wishing you could meet her, I just never thought it was possible.  How are you doing with all of this?  You feeling okay?”  He put his hand against Cas’ stomach in a gesture that Cas kept reminding him was pointless since Castiel was pregnant, not his vessel.

“I am fine, and so is our daughter.  I’ve always admired Mary and I feel honored to meet her in person.  She is a great woman and I am not surprised given who her children are.”

He let out a breath, much of the tension he had been holding leaving with it.  Cas made him feel grounded, just  being with him had him feeling better.  His mom was here, with them, and he wasn’t going to waste this opportunity.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It took three more tries before he finally pulled a fresh batch of not burned gingerbread men from the oven.  He refused to breakdown and ask Gadreel to use his angelic powers to fix his burned cookies.  There was no way he was going to admit defeat and accept angelic intervention over Christmas cookies.

He found it was easy to relax after that.  He found it easy to lose himself in the simple pleasure of decorating cookies with his mom like he used to.  He made a gingerbread vampire and bit the head off, much to his mom’s amusement. 

“You haven’t changed a bit, have you?” she asked.

He thought about that, about how much all of them had changed over the years, all the scars, visibly and unseen.  But right now that didn’t matter, what mattered was that he was celebrating Christmas with his family.

After that she insisted on helping wash dishes while Sam, Gadreel and Castiel started to decorate the tree.  It was a ridiculously large Blue Spruce that Sam had insisted would be perfect given the amount of space they now had.

Mary hummed softly while she did the dishes, he had forgotten she used to do that.  It felt good to hear it again.  Almost without realizing it his hand had returned to the ring box in his pocket, patting it to reassure himself it was still there.

“You’re father used to do that.”

He looked up surprised, “Do what?”

“When he was going to propose he kept the ring in his pocket and he kept touching it, as if he was afraid he was going to lose it.  He was so nervous I wasn’t sure he was going to go through with it.”

“You noticed that?  And here I thought I was being so subtle.  So, uh, what do you think of Cas?”

“He’s wonderful and more to the point, he’s perfect for you.”

He let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“All I’ve ever wanted was to see my boys grow up to be happy.  I wish I could have spared you the pain you’ve gone through, but it does my heart good to see how well you’ve turned out.  I can see how much you and Cas love each other.  I can see it every time you look at him.”

“I should probably let Sam tell you himself, but you should know Sam’s found someone too.  His name is Gadreel and you’ve sort of already met him.  It’s a long story but the short version is that Gadreel is an angel that’s possessing Sam.  Apparently they’ve gotten pretty close what with sharing a body and all, and they’re in a relationship of sorts.  It’s pretty new but I can tell Sam really cares about Gadreel, and I know Gadreel feels the same.  So, yeah, that’s us, the Winchesters and their angels.

He was worried about how Mary might react to this news, but he needed to start giving her more credit.  She just smiled in that all too familiar way that made her look like she had just been given the best news she could hear.

“You and Sam deserve all the happiness you can get.  The circumstances don’t matter, even if they are rather unique.   I’m glad you have both found people – angels – who see exactly how amazing you both are.”

“Well, since I’m getting everything out in the open you should probably know you’re going to be a grandma.  Cas is pregnant.  Apparently some sort of human angelic soul-grace bonding and now we’re going to have a Nephilim.  I didn’t entirely understand it when he explained but the bottom line is we’re having a girl.  We’re going to name her Mary.”

There were tears in her eyes as she pulled him into a hug.  It was a hard thing for him, to be happy.  Happiness always felt like something that was going to be ripped away.  But in that moment, surrounded by the people he loved, he knew that somehow, no matter, everything would turn out okay.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 He found Cas hanging tinsel on the tree and about half of it had ended up on him somehow.  He was explaining to Sam that he better understood It’s a Wonderful Life after having talked with Mary.  “I thoroughly enjoyed my talk with her and I agreed with the points she made.  I wasn’t sure at first, but she made a rather compelling argument.  A literal interpretation of It’s a Wonderful life takes away from the spirit of the movie.  It isn’t about free will, or God’s plan or fate, the intent was to bring light to the idea of love, and family, and remembering what life is worth living for.”   Dean wasn’t sure which the bigger miracle: his mom coming back or Cas actually coming to understand a movie.

He pulled Cas aside then.  He had managed to push down his nervousness, but now that the moment was finally here it all came back to him.  Between his mom coming back and his own nerves over proposing Dean wasn’t sure he was going to survive this Christmas.  He had had a whole speech planned out.  He was going to tell Cas how much he meant to him, and how he would rather return to Hell than live without him, the whole nine yards.  But as he looked into Cas’ expectant gaze, his words left him.  All he could say was, “Cas, will you marry me?”

And all the nerves and tension all seemed silly now as he saw the way Cas smiled, “I thought you’d never ask.  Nothing would make me happier.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Sam had been right, they all needed this.  This was the best Christmas ever.


End file.
